Final England WC squad selection would be tough, says Chris Woakes

Dubai [UAE]: Fast bowler Chris Woakes believes England have talented players to support their batting line-up. He, however, reckoned that selectors would have to make a tough call to name the final squad on May 23 for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, beginning May 30.

“Someone, unfortunately, will miss out, but we do not sit in the dressing room talking about, ‘is it going to be me?’, ‘is it going to be you?’ I think everyone knows it is there and it is creating a good competitive edge to the team, but we do not talk about who is going to miss out and who is going to be selected,” ICC quoted Woakes, as saying.

England named its preliminary World Cup squad on April 17. The 30-year-old, who has been named in the 15-man squad, has featured in England’s ODI side regularly. He has 121 wickets in 87 ODIs under his belt.

When asked about his place in the World Cup squad, Woakes said, “Safe is probably not the word, but you always feel like you need to put in performances, and I am pleased I managed to put in a good performance (returning with 4/67 against Pakistan in third ODI on May 14). You hope you are safe, but I suppose until that squad’s selected, you’re not. Hopefully, I am, but we’ll see.”

“The batsmen have obviously set the benchmark over the last few years, there has always been competition for places – more so maybe than the bowling – and this, I suppose, has done the same for the bowlers. It is always good to have competition; at the international level, that is always going to be the case,” he added. England are currently playing a five-match ODI series against Pakistan. The teams will play the remaining matches on May 17 and 19.

England will then play two warm-ups against Australia and Afghanistan on May 25 and 27, respectively, in the final dress rehearsal for the World Cup before opening its campaign against South Africa on May 30 at The Oval.